Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins open their 2023-24 season against the Chicago Blackhawks. The puck drops tonight at 8 P.M. Eastern at PPG Paints Arena in downtown Pittsburgh. The game can be watched on ESPN, Sportsnet, ESPN+, and TVA Sports.
Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard will be making his NHL debut after being selected first overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. Penguins forward Jake Guentzel will be in the lineup after having ankle surgery on August 2nd.
Projected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Taylor Hall – Connor Bedard – Ryan Donato
Tyler Johnson – Lukas Reichel – Taylor Raddysh
Nick Foligno – Jason Dickinson – Corey Perry
Boris Katchouk – Cole Guttman – Andreas Athanasiou
Alex Vlasic – Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski – Connor Murphy
Jarred Tinordi – Wyatt Kaiser
Petr Mrazek
Arvid Soderblom
Healthy Scratches: D Nikita Zaitsev, F Reese Johnson, F MacKenzie Entwistle
Pittsburgh Penguins
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell
Jansen Harkins – Lars Eller – Drew O’Connor
Matt Nieto – Noel Acciari – Jeff Carter
Ryan Graves – Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson – Erik Karlsson
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Chad Ruhwedel
Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic
Healthy Scratches: D Ryan Shea, D John Ludvig
Players To Watch
CHI: F Andreas Athanasiou (2-5-7 in final five games last season)
PIT: F Sidney Crosby (2-3-5 in final five games last season)
Starting Goalies
CHI: G Petr Mrazek: 10-22-3, 3.66 GAA, .894 SV%, 0 SO (2022-23 stats)
PIT: G Tristan Jarry: 24-13-7, 2.90 GAA, .909 SV%, 2 SO (2022-23 stats)
Team Stats (2022-23 season)
Power Play Percentage
CHI: 16% (28th)
PIT: 22% (14th)
Penalty Kill Percentage
CHI: 76% (22nd)
PIT: 79% (16th)
Faceoff Percentage
CHI: 53% (6th)
PIT: 52% (9th)
Goals For Per Game
CHI: 2.46 (32nd)
PIT: 3.18 (16th)
Goals Against Per Game
CHI: 3.65 (28th)
PIT: 3.21 (19th)
